Trotskiy

It is often entertaining and has high production values. But it fails completely as a historical series. It's willfully inaccurate. Being produced by Russian state tv it comes with a message that an authoritarian regime is best left alone, what takes its place can only be worse.

Great series, great actors. Im a French Canadian so I only speak French and English, I listened to this on Netflix in Russian with French subtitles and loved it. There are some divergences from reality (I wont say to keep this spoiler free, but other viewers have reported somes here in other reviews if you would like to see) and its more of a sensational series that a documentary (think the recent Spartacus iteration on Starz, I think) but I had loads of fun watching it and learned some things on the life of this fascinating and polarizing historical figure. Just make sure to fact-check afterwards. For mature audience, as there violence, nudity, sex scenes and some very hard-to-watch antisemitic scenes (as that was the reality of this era).

I agree with the other comments wrt it's dramatic value and historically dubious facts but as soon as I started watching it I knew Much was missing and went to refresh my memory on the history and facts surrounding Trotsky's life. It's a good production with great acting that keeps true to the major facts, a good intro for most people. And if the fill in some of the gaps with some more historical information they will enjoy the program even more. I hope it spurs them to read more on the topic the Russian revolution and it's main characters because it is so interesting and filled with deceit, violence and terror. It couldn't be captured in one series or a couple of seasons of episodes.

I'm always a bit sceptical when watching a biographical movie or series. It's easy to portray the subject as one-dimensional, either as a monster or as a saint, depending who the subject is and who is telling the story. This fear is even stronger when the story concerns a controversial figure, and Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the October revolution is nothing if not controversial.

So imagine my surprise when instead of the expected propaganda piece about how great Trotsky was I got a fascinating multi-faceted portray of a very complex man. This for me is the best thing about the mini-series. Trotsky is presented as a firm believer in a world-wide revolution, but that doesn't make him innocent or even good. He says he wants to save people, and yet he is willing to sacrifice anyone for the revolution. He is both ruthless and empathetic. He claims he doesn't regret anything - and seems to believe that when saying it - and yet he is quite literally haunted by the ghosts of the people his actions got killed. It's very rare that a biopic is that compelling.

This of course wouldn't be possible without the proper acting. Konstantin Khabenskiy is - as could be expected from such a talented actor - simply brilliant as Trotsky, conveying the character's complexity with ease. Everyone else does a great job as well, but Khabenskiy is clearly the star here.

Another thing that I really liked was the clever use of special effects. The scenes exploring Trotsky's emotions often present him as having vivid hallucinations, which are beautifully animated. Some transitions between scenes are among the best I've ever seen in any movie or series. The only moments when the show doesn't look splendid are the scenes showing historical sites or Trotsky's armored train, when CGI isn't the best. Luckily, these scenes are few and far between.

All in all, Trotsky is a very well-crafted piece of television. Everything from writing to acting to special effects is really good. It's a compelling story about a fascinating (if controversial) man. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys biographical or historical dramas. Or to people who are just looking for a solid tv series.

While no one can know the exact history behind the walls of the revolution. I found this series mesmerizing. I love all history and sometimes it's nice to put it into historical fiction. You can only watch so many documentaries. Try it out. Rich